Digital rights management (DRM) comprises access control technologies that protect the intellectual property of the distributed digital media by limiting usage of digital media using encryption techniques. That is, DRM technology allows securely transmitting contents from a Content Provider (CP) to a user and protecting the contents from being illegally used and distributed.
DRM technologies attempt to protect the digital contents through all the phases of creation, distribution, use, and abrogation; and restricts access and usage rights of the user on the digital contents in online and even offline states.
In the meantime, portable devices are becoming more and more useful with various application programs advantageous for everyday life as well as their expanded storage capability while maintaining portability. Among them, mobile communication terminals such as cellular phones have become essential tools for communication.
In order to use DRM content on a portable device, the portable device has to access a content server for acquiring the DRM content and license or connects to a computer for receiving the DRM content and license downloaded from the content server. That is, the DRM content and license can be acquired in a direct license acquisition (DLA) scheme in which the portable device receives the DRM content and license from the content server or an indirect license acquisition (ILA) scheme in which the portable device receives the DRM content and license from the computer.
In a case of attempting to access to a content server, however, since the portable device does not know an access scheme supported by the content server, the portable device attempts the access to the content server according to an arbitrary access scheme it knows. Although the access attempts may succeed, they are likely to fail. That is, since the portable device does not know unavailable access conditions, it may repeat unnecessary access attempts and power checks.